Observations in reply to the opinions of the Elder Brethren of the Trinity Houses of London, Newcastle, and Kingston-upon-Hull, contained in their several reports of the 8th February, 5th March, and 9th April, 1813 ... on the plan submitted to ascertain 'the real merits and benefits of a general establishment for the preservation from shipwreck' / [George William Manby].

  • Manby, George William, 1765-1854
Date:
[1814]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations in reply to the opinions of the Elder Brethren of the Trinity Houses of London, Newcastle, and Kingston-upon-Hull, contained in their several reports of the 8th February, 5th March, and 9th April, 1813 ... on the plan submitted to ascertain 'the real merits and benefits of a general establishment for the preservation from shipwreck' / [George William Manby]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    4/8 (page 4)
    recommended as a station for the apparatus, been supplied with it, I could have pro¬ duced thirteen cases of preservation from Shipwreck, which no other means would have effected, on the coast of one county X alone : but why should I hazard wearying attention, without increasing conviction, by calling an endless train of witnesses to the same point. I thought, seven successive instances were sufficient to prove, that the preservation was a consequence, and not a coincidence;—if it succeeded seven, why should it not succeed seven hundred times ? Nothing but the recencj7 of the preservation of a Crew near Yarmouth induces me to give it a place here,— “ Signal Station, Yarmouth, “ 12th March, 1814, “ Sir, u I here send you a statement of the happy means that you have brought to tl such perfection, in saving shipwrecked Mariners, On the 20th of January “ last, about half past six A. M. I was informed that a vessel was on shore at t( South Ham, in Gorton Bay, which place I immediately proceeded to, with the ii mortar under my charge, about three miles from my station, it then blowing “ very hardfrom N.N. E. dead on the shore with drifting snow. At the time I got 4i to the place it was near high water, and the sea was breaking some height up 4C the cliff, which made it impossible for any boat to render the distressed vessel <c any assistance : at this time her main and mizen mast was gone, and her boats {< and spars was washed all oft' her deck, and her rudder uushipt; and in her “ rising and falling, the head of the rudder was ripping her stern and decks up t( all to pieces, and the sea was breaking violently, quite over the vessel; and <£ there was every appearance of her soon going to pieces. If she had parted, {C there was not the least hopes of the Crew being saved, but by the means I il made use of before she did; and I had the satisfaction, in firing the second “ shot, from the top of the cliff, in throwing a line over the vessel:—I suppose 4( the vessel was full two hun tired and thirty yards from the cliff:—to which line, “ on signs being made to the people to haul a sufficient quantity on board, for the bite to return to the shore, they then made a hawser fast to it, that was “ fortunately laying abaft. As soon as the people on the cliff bad hauled the tc said hawser on shore, and taught from the vessel, I cut a piece of the hawser <£ off', and made a grummit on the hawser with it, sufficiently large for a man to “ sit in, to which I made the bite of the line fast to it: on waving to the people “ on board, they hauled the grummit along the hawser to the vessel, and onq “ man got into it at a time, and was hauled on shore hanging on the hawser; <£ and the grummit was hauled to the vessel again, by which method, the whole 4i of the Crew, consisting of Five Men and Two Boys, were saved. And it is my “ opinion, that the Mortar is the only means that can give immediate Relief to <c Shipwrecked Mariners. “ CHARLES WOODGER, Lieut. JR. N. ” The Brethren have remarked, that in two of the eases reported in my Publication, the preservation “ appears to have been effected through means of a boat being hauled oft’ by a line.” Certainly :—but by a boat, hauled off from the shore by a line, thrown over the ship with the shot from the mortar; when no other known means on earth would have effected a. ■communication. The next paragraph of the Brethren regards a plan, which I proposed, for giving unimmergibleness to common boats. <c With regard to Capt. Manby’s suggestion of affixing air kegs in boats, the Brethren il do not approve of it: as they think that the boat, by this method, though rendered more buoyant, would be very likely to upset.” Deferring only to the conviction of reason, rather than to the opinions of the Brethren. I am yet compelled to observe, that the sentence of inutility, which they have thus pro¬ nounced, is a conclusion from wrong premises. The boat, while it is no more innrjerged, than when used in fine weather, and on smooth water, on ordinary occasions, so far from being rendered more, is rendered less buoyant by the kegs filled with air. The air within them is not lighter than the atmospheric air; and no difference of gravity is, there¬ fore, occasioned by it; while the kegs themselves add to the weight of the boat; and, however insensibly, yet certainly, decrease it’s buoyancy ; and, as a proportionate weight is added to the keel of the boat, the centre of gravity remains unaltered; and, conse¬ quently, the liability in the boat to upset is not in the smallest degree increased. It is under extraordinary circumstances, when the boat is to be used, as a life-boat, and is washed over by the waves which leave it filled with water, that the kegs operate in increased buoyancy;—But is it now, that the Brethren suppose the liability to upset increased? From a well known law of nature, the kegs of air in the upper part of the boat, lighter than the water, strive tp ascend in constant resistance to the keel below, which, heavier than the water, strives to descend; and, by this opposition, a perpendicular is preserved. It would be as easy to upset the boat, thus immerged, as to make a spline, that heavy with lead, at one end, was dropped from a height through the air, fall on the end, that was siot loaded. % Norfolk. On